Edge-Lit 2

Up in Derby yesterday for Edge-Lit 2 at QUAD. Lots of interesting panel sessions on genre fiction but the highlight for me personally was probably Tom Fletcher, Suzanne McLeod, Sarah Pinborough, Niki Valentine and Conrad Williams talking about ‘Fear Today: What Scares Us in 2013?’ The discussion ranged widely and freely, taking in how – given that we’re well on our way to such a world in terms of global warming and the population explosion – some of the scariest post-apocalyptic writing around is non-fiction. One interesting question raised was whether crime writers have wrestled the subject of serial killers from horror. The panel also addressed the vexed question of writing about violence against women and the various justifications such as writers exploring the fear of loss or attempting to hold the mirror up to a sexist society. They explored the differences between horror in film and novels – briefly, while film can rely on shock tactics, novels have to go deeper. And they agreed that the audience for horror novels and horror films don’t overlap much. One member of the group even contended that horror film aficionados aren’t really given to reading anything much at all. The panel also explored the difficulty of taking on old horror tropes such as vampires or werewolves and the weight of tradition and expectation to negotiate. And they pointed out that one of the most interesting developments in horror at the moment is the cross-over into other genres.